Presidential inauguration: Locals share the thrill of chance to witness history

Saturday

Jan 19, 2013 at 12:01 AM

Late Friday night at the Walmart in Summerfield, Mary Hollingsworth boarded a charter bus bound for Washington, D.C.

By Rick AllenStaff writer

Late Friday night at the Walmart in Summerfield, Mary Hollingsworth boarded a charter bus bound for Washington, D.C. She'll get off the bus tonight in the nation's capital, just hours before President Barack Obama's second inauguration."Yes, I AM going," she nearly sings.Long a Democratic Party activist in Marion County, Hollingsworth, 59, said she was disappointed that she could not make it to Obama's first inauguration in 2009."I really wanted to go four years ago," she said Wednesday. "As soon as we knew he'd won this time, I looked for a way to go."While the public excitement over the upcoming inauguration is not as apparent as that in 2009, thousands of people are heading to D.C. for the chance to see history made one more time.People flocked to the inauguration in 2009 in record-breaking numbers. Prior to 2009, the highest attendance was 1.2 million, set at Lyndon B. Johnson's second inauguration.District of Columbia officials estimate that between 600,000 and 800,000 people will attend Obama's second swearing-in, a steep decline from 2009 but an above-average audience for a second-term inauguration. George W. Bush's second inauguration attracted between 300,000 and 400,000 people. Bill Clinton's likely drew around 450,000.The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority anticipates hundreds of thousands of people will use the rail and bus systems throughout the weekend, but hotels haven't booked at the same pace as they did four years ago.For Hollingsworth, the trip is much like the one her friend Hortense Birkett took years back, she said. Birkett, a Silver Springs Shores resident, walked with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and hundreds of thousands of others at the March on Washington 50 years ago.It was on that August day in 1963 that King gave his "I Have a Dream" speech.Oh, it'll be tedious, Hollingsworth acknowledged. There's the long ride, a lot of walking and waiting and getting up early Monday for good seats. And it's likely to be cold, or at least cold for Floridians; "I'm taking all of my thermals with me," she said.But it'll be worth it, added Holler — as she's known to her friends. "History is always in the making if you just make yourself available to it."Just being in the atmosphere of the inauguration will be exciting," Hollingsworth continued. "This is history."

Lori Cotton and her daughters already have witnessed history. The Ocala family was in Washington four years ago the first time Obama took the oath of office as president. And they will be there again Monday."We had a really good time last time," Cotton said Wednesday shortly before she and the girls — Jasmine Henry, 16, Riley Henry, 12, and Maya Henry, 7 — piled into their car for the drive north. "It was amazing."Riley recalled drawing in a sketchbook before the new president spoke; Jasmine remembered "the long lines, there were so many people you had to walk for miles it seemed."Well, there were an estimated 2 million attending last time.Cotton said the idea of attending an inauguration grew out of the Hillary Clinton campaign in 2008. "I told the girls that if Hillary is the first female president, we were going to be there," she said. "I eventually got on board with Barack Obama and decided to go."And Cotton was fairly confident of his re-election. "I made hotel reservations a year ago, before all the prices went up," she said. Still, she concedes it was a refundable reservation — just in case."Election night for us was like the Super Bowl," Jasmine said. She said she considers this trip as a campaign worker's reward. "I volunteered with the campaign for his re-election," Jasmine said. "I knocked on doors and such …""Was that fun?" interrupted Maya."Sometimes, when the people were nice," her sister responded.Maya said her gifted class at Dr. N.H. Jones Elementary discussed the election through much of the fall. "After it, we started Egypt," she added.Cotton said she got their inaugural tickets through newly elected Rep. Ted Yoho's office last week. Four years ago Rep. Cliff Stearns provided the tickets. Apparently they were allotted through a lottery; "we were lucky both times," Cotton said.Of course, this trip means all three girls will miss a day of school Tuesday for the drive home, but Cotton said it's worth it. "It's important to me they understand the process," she said."It's exciting because this is something we'll remember always," Riley said.And added Jasmine: "It's cool that we'll be able to be there. This moment we'll experience will be in the history books someday."My history teacher couldn't tell me not to go," she said. "I hope he gives me extra credit."